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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
In Plato's Republic, Socrates argued that true artisans work not in their own interest but for the good of that upon which they practice their art. So the true ruler is one who works for the good of the city or the citizens, not the ruler's own self-interest. Many would hold, with Leo Strauss, that Machiavelli contends the very opposite — that for him the true prince ruthlessly seeks self-interest and personal power. I think this is too simple a reading of Machiavelli.
I do not want to argue that Machiavelli is not a Machiavellian — that he does not counsel evil. But I do want to argue that Machiavelli's advice to the prince is to avoid self-interest. The prince is encouraged to act for the good of the state. It is true that in Machiavelli's opinion this will often require doing evil, and it is also true, one must admit, that Machiavelli does not really expect the prince to succeed in avoiding self-interest.
1 I would like to thank several people for their lengthy and valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper: Don Beggs, Don Stoll, Mike Meyer, Peter Minowitz, and Jim Felt. I would also like to thank the members of the Philosophy Department at Santa Clara University for very helpful discussions of this paper. I also want to thank Annette Aronowicz from whom I first got some of the central ideas of this paper.
2 Republic, 342c-347a; I have used The Collected Dialogues of Plato (Bollingen Series LXXI), Hamilton, E. and Cairns, H. eds. (New York: Pantheon 1961)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, but I cite the column pagination so that any edition may be used.
3 Strauss, L. Thoughts on Machiavelli (Seattle: University of Washington Press 1969), 80Google Scholar
4 E.g., ‘A Discourse on Remodeling the Government of Florence,’ in Machiavelli: The Chief Works and Others (CW), Gilbert, A. trans. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press 1965), I, 103Google Scholar. Discourses on tile First Decade of Titus Livius (Discourses), CW I, bk. 3, ch. 22, 482 — besides page numbers, I will cite chapter numbers (and book numbers when they exist) whenever possible so that other editions, if more convenient, can be used. History of Florence, CW, III, bk. 4, ch. 22, 1213.
5 Prince, CW, I, ch. 11, 46
6 Ibid., ch. 12, 47-8
7 Ibid., ch. 22, 85. Moreover, Machiavelli feels compelled to argue against Livy in defense of Brutus. He argues that Brutus acted for the common good, not his own self interest (Discourses, CW, I, bk. 3, ch. 2, 423-4). He also argues that Romulus in founding Rome did not kill his brother out of self-interest but for the common good (Discourses, CW, I, bk. I, ch. 9, 218-20).
8 Prince, CW, I, ch. 18, 66
9 Ibid., ch. 15, 58; my italics
10 Ibid., ch. 14, 55
11 Parel, A.J. The Machiavellian Cosmos (New Haven: Yale University Press 1992)Google Scholar
12 Prince, CW, I, ch. 8, 38
13 Ibid., ch. 26, 92ff.
14 Ibid., 10-11
15 Ibid., ch. 22, 85-6
16 Ibid., ch. 8, 36
17 Ibid., ch. 26,92-6
18 Ibid., ch. 22,86
19 Ibid., ch. 23,87
20 Ibid., ch. 15, 57 (trans. altered; for a different translation, see The Prince, Mansfield, H.C. Jr. trans.[Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1985], 61).Google Scholar
21 Art of War, CW, II, 722
22 Ibid., II, 724
23 Ibid.
24 Discourses, CW, I, bk. 3, ch. 8, 450
25 Ibid., ch. 2, 423
26 History of Florence, CW, Ill, bk. 7, ch. 3, 1340
27 See Pitkin's impressive discussion of the Mediterranean ideal of furbo, i.e., ‘skill in employing ruses that are usually, but not necessarily, dishonest’ (Pitkin, H.F Fortune Is a Woman [Berkeley: University of California Press 1984], 33ff.)Google Scholar. Also, Pitkin's discussion of Machiavelli's comedy, Mandragola, comes very close to the view I have been trying to develop. In this play, Ligurio helps a young man, Callimaco, seduce a virtuous young woman, Lucretia, who is married to a foolish old man, Nicia: ‘The suggestion that Mandragola in some ways parallels The Prince — with Machiavelli as counselor in the latter resembling Ligurio in the former — has been made repeatedly by Machiavelli scholars. Like Ligurio, Machiavelli seeks to manipulate the prince into seizing power — for both the prince's glory and the good of Italy. If he were to succeed, the prince would get the actual power just as Callimaco gets the girl: poor despoiled Italy as she appears in the last chapter of The Prince …. Machiavelli himself is pimp to the union, rearranging present disorder and conflicting desires in a way that leaves all concerned better off; the real credit should be his' (Pitkin, 30-1). I would just add that while Machiavelli, like Ligurio, does always continue to serve — that is, he does not seek to become prince himself — Machiavelli would be willing to go further than Ligurio does. Like Brutus or Girolamo, he would, if necessity requires, take firmer action to replace an existing prince with a better one.
28 Prince, CW, I, ch. 15, 57-8
29 Ibid., ch. 7, 31. For a very similar story about Alexandra, the wife of Alexander, King of the Jews, who had his body thrown into the public square to save herself and her two children, see Castiglione, B. The Book of the Courtier, Singleton, C.S. trans. (Garden City, NY: Anchor 1959), 223–4.Google Scholar
30 Prince, CW, I, ch. 18, 66
31 Strauss, 9, 80
32 Hulliung, M. Citizen Machiavelli (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1983), 219–57 passimGoogle Scholar
33 Donaldson, P.S. Machiavelli and Mystery of State (New York: Cambridge University Press 1988), 112, 168, 194, 212, 214–15Google Scholar
34 Cassirer, E. The Myth of the State (New Haven: Yale University Press 1946), 154Google Scholar
35 Strauss, 11
36 Wolin, S.S. Politics and Vision (Boston: Little, Brown 1960), 203–4Google Scholar
37 Berlin, I. ‘The Originality of Machiavelli,’ in Hardy, H. ed., Against the Current (New York: Viking 1955), 45Google Scholar
38 Parel, 11-13,28-9,51,59,61-2
39 Prince, CW, I, ch. 8, 36; for the Italian, see Opere, Bonfantine, M. ed. (Milan: R. Ricciardi 1954), 29.Google Scholar
40 Prince, CW, I, ch. 18, 66
41 Skinner, Q. The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1978), I, 118Google Scholar
42 Skinner, I, 122
43 Donaldson, x-xii, 88-9, 124. Also see Rousseau, J.-J. On the Social Contract, in Basic Political Writings, Cress, D.A. trans. (Indianapolis: Hackett 1987), bk. III, ch. VI, 183.Google Scholar
44 This view is argued by Orwin, C. ‘Machiavelli's Unchristian Charity,’ American Political Science Review 72 (1978) 1217–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45 Parel, 93-4, 97
46 Prince, CW, I, ch. 17,61-2
47 Discourses, CW, I, bk. 1, ch. 9, 218
48 Prince, CW, I, ch. 26, 94
49 Ibid., ch. 8, 38
50 Ibid., I, ch. 7, 33
51 Ibid., ch. 15, 58; my italics
52 Here, I have used the Mansfield translation; see The Prince, H.C. Mansfield, Jr., trans., ch. 18, 70; my italics.
53 For others who agree with this view, see Berlin, 63. Meinecke, F. Machiavellism: The Doctrine of Raison d'Etat and Its Place in Modern History, Scott, D. trans. (New York: Praeger 1965), 33.Google Scholar
54 Mandragola, CW, II, act 4, scene 1, 805
55 Concerning Machiavelli's view of hell, see the fascinating book by Grazia, S. de Machiavelli in Hell (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1989), chs. 13–14.Google Scholar
56 Ridolfi, R. The Life of Niccola Machiavelli, Grayson, C. trans. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1963), 249–50Google Scholar; Villari, P. Niccolò Machiavelli and His Times, Villari, L. trans. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 1883), IV, 424Google Scholar; de Grazia, 341
57 de Grazia, 341. de Grazia thinks this comes from an earlier anonymous story. A lover says, ‘What do I have to do with paradise? I do not want to enter there unless I have with me Nicollette, my so sweet friend whom I love so much, for in paradise go only those people I shall number for you. There go the priests so old and those old cripples and the maimed who all day and all night cough before those altars and in old crypts, and those who wear old tattered capes and old clothes, who are naked, without shoes or breeches, who are dead of hunger and thirst, and of cold and misery. Such are the people who go to paradise: with them I have nothing to do. But it is to hell that I want to go, because it is to hell where the fine scholars go, and the fine cavaliers killed in the tournament and the brilliant wars, the valiant men of arms and the knights. It is with these that I want to go. And there go too the fair ladies so courteous for having two or three friends besides their wedded lords; and there go also the gold and silver, the furs of miniver and vair, and there go the harpers, the minstrels, the kings of this world’ (de Grazia, 341-2). I think that Machiavelli's story is a twist on Socrates’ argument in the Apology to the effect that the afterlife, if it exists, is not to be feared because it will allow him to continue conversing as he always has, but now with great men like Homer, Odysseus, and others. See the Apology, 40c-41c.
58 de Grazia, 4
59 de Grazia, 115
60 Villari, IV, 422
61 Ridolfi, 250; Villari, IV, 421
62 Burckhardt, J. The Civilization of the Renaissanace in Italy, Middlemore, S.G.C. trans.; revised Gordon, I. (New York: Mentor 1960), 75Google Scholar
63 Mansfield, ‘Introduction,’ in The Prince, H.C. Mansfield, Jr., trans., xiv